Little Man Tate

Film Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Little Man Tate turns actress Jodie Foster's debut as a director into a triumph of the first order. Adam Hann-Byrd is captivating as a pint-sized genius who is a talented poet, pianist, artist, and mathematical wizard. Much to the dismay of his working-class mother (Jodie Foster), his ulcers attest to his anxieties about the environmental destruction of the planet and the fact that he has no friends. His self-esteem skyrockets when a high I.Q. child psychiatrist (Dianne Wiest) selects him to participate in "Odyssey of the Mind" and then takes him on as a special project of hers while he attends university classes. Little Man Tate charts the loneliness of gifted children and their struggle to find acceptance in a world where very few other individuals wake up in Vincent van Gogh's flower paintings.